Grantham Research Fellows

Grantham Research Fellow posts are aimed at external stakeholders who hold positions of responsibility in industry, business, policy, or NGOs, and are interested in knowledge exchange and the translation of research findings. They offer the opportunity for Affiliates to foster greater engagement with non-academic stakeholders, embed external expertise within the College through work on complementary projects, and to maximise the impact of research beyond academia.

The Institute will fund up to two Grantham Research Fellow posts each year, around the Institute's key research and engagement priority areas. The funding will support non-academic stakeholder sabbaticals on a part-time basis, with an indicative budget of £25,000 per Fellowship, to cover the direct costs of staff time and any associated activities. There is an expectation that post-holders maintain a connection to the Institute for at least 3-6 months.

We particularly welcome projects within our priority themes in development, which include:

Health, climate and other co-benefits

Energy governance

Climate change and water (adaptation)

Strategic narratives

Climate finance

The circular economy

Land use change and diets

Negative emissions technology

Behaviour change

Extreme weather events

Case study

Jeff Hardy is on 12-month sabbatical from Ofgem where he was Head of Sustainable Energy Futures, focusing on non-traditional business models, future energy systems, climate change adaptation and sustainable development. Before that he worked at the UK Energy Research Centre, the Energy Generation and Supply Knowledge Transfer Network, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Green Chemistry Group at the University of York and at Sellafield as research chemist in a nuclear laboratory. His Fellowship enables him to spend two days a week at the Grantham Institute, where he is developing alternative future energy scenarios and strategic narratives around society-led low carbon transformations and their benefits. Jeff is spending a further two days a week as Acting Head of Science for WGIII of IPCC, supporting Prof Jim Skea.

Requirements

The field of study or collaboration must be aligned to the Institute’s remit

The post-holder is required to maintain contact with the Institute throughout the fellowship

Fellows are expected to deliver one or more engagement activities, informing decision making around their chosen focus

How to apply

As a first step applicants should contact an Affiliate they would like to sponsor them; applicants can make this approach themselves, or the Institute is happy to help make an introduction to a researcher in a relevant field. Once a project has been decided on, we encourage applicants to discuss their ideas with the Institute prior to submitting a proposal.

Please contact Laila Read, Scientific Projects Manager (l.read@imperial.ac.uk), if you would like more information on the proposal process, or Alyssa Gilbert, Head of Policy and Translation (a.gilbert@imperial.ac.uk), to discuss a specific proposal.